1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to management of a printing output of an electronic document.
2. Related Art
In an environment where an electronic document is distributed to or shared by multiple users, it is now a general practice to unify the format of the electronic document in a format which can be viewed on a screen, such as PDF (Portable Document Format), and store the electronic document in that format, in order to reduce storage cost. PDF is a format developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated of the United States and has recently been standardized by ISO (International Organization for Standardization).
Because a PDF document can be electronically copied, functions for protecting the content using, for example, a password, encryption, and electronic signature are provided. In addition, there exists a system which prohibits the printing function as a matter of policy.
In order to use these security-enhancing functions, a server for authenticating the electronic signature, managing a password, or managing policy is required. In other words, when a viewer (for example, Acrobat® Reader) or editing software (for example, Acrobat®) which handles a PDF document handles a PDF document which uses the security function, there may be cases in which a desired function cannot be performed unless the viewer or the software connects to a server such as the policy server.
An electronic document such as the PDF document has an advantage in that the electronic document can be distributed to and viewed by many users, because electronically copying the electronic document is easy. Meanwhile, there are needs for managing the electronic document by limiting printing of the document with a certain limitation while allowing for freely viewing the document. As a method for managing the printing process, there is known a method in which the electronic document can be printed in its complete form only by a particular printing device which is managed.
For example, printing of business documents used in business operations needs to be limited to one time by a particular printer in which the printing output is managed while the viewing of the business documents is freely allowed. In addition, there may be cases in which the printing of the contents is limited for commercial purposes, such as a case in which a sample document is distributed in a large amount in the form of the electronic document and high-quality printing is only allowed by a particular chargeable printing device after receipt of payment.